Round-up

I've just updated my website, so here are links to some recent stories:

Born in the Barrens (60,000 words) - an AU in which Rodney McKay, a master alchemist currently resident in the city of the Genii, becomes the unwilling master of a certain dark-haired slave. This is the complete version for anyone who wants to read it in a single file.

Indistinguishable from Magic (4000 words) - "When John rubs a magic lamp-- "Magic?" squawked the genie, flapping its incorporeal arms. "How many times do I have to tell you that magic doesn't exist? You-- Oh," it said, with an exaggerated incorporeal sigh. "We're in a story. That, apparently, makes everything okay. So go on, tell your stupid story. I bet no-one reads it. Magic and wishes? Pah!" (This was written for the Wish Fulfillment challenge on LJ)

This one can't be put on my website yet, because the challenge hasn't been closed yet, but I also wrote something for the current flashfic challenge:

Pros and Cons (2400 words). "It was proving to be the freakiest captivity ever. John doubted that even Ronon could take out four hundred crazed women when armed only with a teaspoon." A little piece of silliness inspired by a forthcoming con.

Finally, here is my entry for round 8 of the Last Fic Writer Standing challenge over on sgahcchallenges, which called for stories featuring only secondary characters.

They Also Serve

The floor was hard against Chuck's face. His hand slithered in the growing pool of blood. Moaning, he dragged his knees up, and tried to push himself onto his back. The ceiling of the control room swirled above him.

The raiders had surged through the gate, brandishing their stolen IDC. Colonel Sheppard had been subdued, Woolsey had been taken hostage and Doctor McKay had been dragged away to do the raiders' work for them. Only nobodies remained, not important enough to capture or kill.

Pain flared in his side, pinning him to the floor. He tried to cling onto consciousness, but pain was a wave that swept him away.

All his life was there. For years he had watched as teams strode off to save distant worlds. He'd lowered the shield for them to return, desperate and bleeding. He'd been pushed aside when important work needed to be done. People had rushed past him on the way to the jumper bay. He'd seen them risk their lives again and again, while he just bent over his controls, and sat, and watched.

"Can you hear me?"

Chuck managed to open his eyes. Zelenka, his glasses shattered and his face stained with blood, was reaching a hand towards him. "They've gone," Zelenka whispered. "They're not watching us."

Because they were nobodies, left behind to die. The raider captain had knelt above Chuck, lifted his chin with harsh fingers, then let it fall again. Not a warrior or a bargaining chip. No threat at all. What could he do?

Chuck's breathing faltered, and he held it there, then let it out. What couldn't he?

He scraped away the clouds of agony from his eyes. Clasping his hand to his side, he pushed himself up. If he pressed that button here, flipped that switch there… A fake warning of a self-destruct, armed with codes he had watched McKay enter, all those times the man had pushed him aside. And Zelenka's fingers were flying over the controls, leaving smears of blood behind them. "To over-ride the lockdown," he said, "so soldiers can come with guns."

And soon the control room was full of shouting; everywhere there was shouting. Chuck saw Major Lorne burst through the door; saw the raiders fall, one by one by one.

Pain surged, whisking him away. "They thought we were nobody," he whispered, as the pale ceiling above him turned to shadow.

"They were foolish to think so." Zelenka's eyes glittered behind shards of shattered glass. "We are of Atlantis, and we…" He grasped Chuck's hand and squeezed it tight. "We shine."